Crumbling airport infrastructure and air safety standards are the most urgent problems facing Africa, ICAO officials told delegates from 42 countries last week in Abuja, Nigeria. The council president, Assad Kotaite, said "critical deficiencies" in air navigation "seriously undermine the safety of flights across Africa's airspace." ICAO expects Africa traffic to expand 4% annually, and Kotaite said African governments must improve safety training programs for ground personnel and upgrade air navigation equipment.
American and Citibank plan to give away 10 million frequent flyer miles and a first-class trip to Europe in a six-month sweepstakes for Citibank AAdvantage cardholders. The contest, from July 1 through Dec. 31, will award miles to nearly 1,000 participants, offering monthly prizes and a grand prize at the end of the year of a trip for two to Europe and accommodations at Radisson Hotels Worldwide, a seven-day Avis car rental and $10,000 credited to the credit card. Each month, 150 winners will receive 10,000 miles.
DOT has issued a request for more information on the American-British Airways alliance, including details on a "commercial agreement between American and a foreign airline." DOT wants a copy of that agreement, "either in final or in draft form if not final." It asked for a detailed explanation of it, "including all documents analyzing the proposed commercial arrangement and the role that the foreign air carrier would play in the proposed AA/BA alliance in terms of corporate strategy, marketing, yield management, capacity management, and pricing." It also wants data on t
British Airways posted the best profit in its history yesterday - net earnings of #553 million (US$900 million), up 17% over 1995 - despite a 20% increase in jet fuel prices and a strong pound. BA posted pre-tax profits of #640 million ($1.04 billion), up 9.4% and also a record, and revenues rose 7.7% to #8.36 billion ($13.6 billion). Apart from the effects of jet fuel, unit costs declined 1.2%. BA earned the third-highest net of any airline last year, behind United's $1.03 billion and American's $1.02 billion.
The National Civil Aviation Review Commission will address FAA financial and budget issues May 28 in the first of at least two public hearings. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at the Commerce Department auditorium, 14th St. and Constitution Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. Persons interested in presenting testimony should contact Margie Tower, NCARC, at 202-366- 6942, fax 202-493-2963.
American Trans Air's April traffic fell 8.7% to 743.1 million revenue passenger miles from 814.7 million in April 1996. Available seat miles dropped more - 12.2%, to 1.041 billion from 1.185 billion. The load factor rose 2.7 percentage points to 71.4%. Charter-service block hours jumped 21.4% while scheduled-service block hours fell 18.9%. For the first four months, RPMs fell 10.9% to 2.953 billion and ASMs were down 13.1% to 4.026 billion, and the load factor rose 1.7 points to 73.3%.
European governments must summon the political courage to support the creation of "real transnational companies," Richard Evans, chief executive of British Aerospace, said last week in Strasbourg at a meeting with European Parliament members who follow developments in the aerospace sector.
Southwest is offering reduced fares through June 10 for new New Orleans- Phoenix, Louisville-Phoenix, Kansas City-Los Angeles and Kansas City- Oakland nonstops, and in the Nashville-Columbus market, for travel June 11 through Oct. 24. The new flights create one-stop opportunities to Los Angeles from Chicago Midway, Louisville and New Orleans. Southwest is offering $99 fares to Phoenix from Louisville and New Orleans, and to Los Angeles, with a stop, from Chicago, Louisville and New Orleans.
U.S.-Saudi talks, planned for two days, ended after only one with some minor fine-tuning to the agreement. The U.S. did not persuade the Saudis to adopt third-country code sharing for combination service. The two sides renewed current annexes that expired in March for another year, and agreed on text governing intermodal transport of cargo by airlines.
Delta let options to acquire 10 McDonnell Douglas aircraft lapse during the first quarter, according to the airline's 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.From Dec. 31 to March 31, Delta's options on MD- 90s dropped from 47 to 44, on MD-88s from 10 to four and on MD-11s from 17 to 16. The companies agreed recently to re-evaluate the remaining MD-90s Delta has on order.
Continental and the Independent Association of Continental Pilots have filed jointly for help from the National Mediation Board in contract talks that cover Continental and Continental Express pilots. Although a federal mediator's assistance is sought, Continental still says it believes a contract agreement is possible by the end of June.
Alaska Airlines has cut Memorial Day weekend fares to $49 each way to the Bay Area, Sacramento or Reno, $79 to Los Angeles, Burbank, Ontario, San Diego or Las Vegas, and $99 to Phoenix, Palm Springs or Orange County. Travel must begin between noon May 24 and midnight May 25, with a return on May 25, May 28 or May 29. The fares require a one-day advance purchase and are based on a roundtrip ticket.
Visiting French President Jacques Chirac and Chinese Premier Li Peng inaugurated Saturday the China Aviation Supplies Import&Export Corp.- Airbus Industrie training and support center near Capital Airport, Beijing. Developed through an initial investment of $50 million by Airbus, the center has an 8,200 square meter training facility incorporating video and computer-based instruction. It has an A320 simulator and plans to acquire an A340 simulator, both from Thomson Training and Simulation.
British Airways' two cabin crew unions are divided on how to deal with the company's efficiency measures. One of them, the 3,500-member Cabin Crew 89, has voted overwhelmingly in favor of BA's proposals, but the other - BASSA, a unit of the Transport&General Workers Union - has taken a strike ballot to its 8,500 members. The airline has been notified of the strike vote, BA Chief Executive Robert Ayling said yesterday, but the company does not believe its employees "are of a mind to take industrial action.
National Transportation Safety Board, meeting today to update its "most wanted" list of transportation safety recommendations, is expected to add two that deal with the ValuJet and TWA crashes, concerning fire in aircraft cargo compartments and explosive mixtures in aircraft fuel tanks.
Eurocopter consortium and Intertechnique of France plan what they describe as the first attempt to fly a helicopter nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. The flight, by a single-engine Eurocopter Ecureuil helicopter refueled five times inflight using a system developed by Intertechnique, is scheduled to leave Teterboro, N.J., on June 6 and arrive at Le Bourget Airport near Paris the following day.
United and Midway were scrambling yesterday to accommodate passengers in their code-share operations with Great Lakes Aviation, which suspended operations Saturday under FAA pressure. Great Lakes said it plans to resume at least some of its 500 daily flights Thursday. FAA cited improperly trained maintenance personnel as one reason for the grounding. The action came soon after FAA hired the carrier's director of training, The DAILY was told. Great Lakes operated code-share agreements as United Express and Midway Connection.
Emirates will launch three weekly A300-600 flights June 2 from Dubai to Baku, Azerbaijan, its first destination in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
MCI still was trying yesterday to figure out what happened Saturday to some of its equipment during a one-hour power outage at the Oberlin, Ohio, air route traffic control center, which interrupted communications with local air traffic control facilities and en route centers, according to FAA. The outage affected airspace in parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, Indiana and New York and major airports hit with delays were Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh airports.
American Society of Travel Agents is conducting seminars on how to negotiate computer reservations system contracts. The first is to be held Thursday at the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington, Va. Jeffrey Miller, attorney and ASTA member, conducts the seminar. Seminars follow in Atlanta May 28, Chicago June 3 and Los Angeles June 14.
The net profit of City Hotels NV, owner of Belgian low-cost startup CityBird, surged from 20.8 million Belgian francs (about US$600,000) in 1995 to BEF729 million ($20.8 million) last year, mainly from the BEF789 million ($22.5 million) sale of the company's original new entrant, two- year-old EuroBelgian, to Virgin Atlantic. Virgin operates the acquisition as Virgin Express and limits service to routes within Europe. CityBird, launched March 27 by City Hotels, offers charter and scheduled service across the Atlantic.
Western Pacific Airlines is offering introductory fares for new Denver service by itself and affiliate Mountain Air Express on tickets purchased by June 4. Special fares also are available for Colorado Springs for travel May 25-Nov. 24. The carriers begin serving Denver June 29. Roundtrip fares during off-peak days - Tuesday through Thursday - include $118 to Grand Junction, $124 to Aspen, $144 to Albuquerque and $236 to Washington Dulles and Newark.
U.S. Major Carriers Traffic April, 4 Months 1997 (000) April April % 1997 1996 Change Alaska Revenue Passenger Miles 823,000 778,000 5.8 Available Seat Miles 1,215,000 1,196,000 1.6 Load Factor (%) 67.7 65.1 America West
Canadian Airlines traffic decreased 0.8% in April, but domestic traffic rose 2.2% and the carrier reported load factor gains throughout the country. Overall, the load factor gained 3.0 percentage points, reaching 71.5%. The domestic load factor increased 1.7 points to 66.7% as capacity was down slightly. The load factor gained most on the western and eastern shuttle routes. International capacity dropped 7.4% as the airline redeployed aircraft to Asia from Europe, and the reduction in capacity was offset by improved yields, the carrier said.
